Back in the Pinhurst Mansion, the laughter had finally calmed down, and everyone was staring intently at Cynrik as he dropped into a deep stance, with his left knee bent and his right leg extended out behind him like a sprinter.
His left arm was extended forward, and his hand hovered centimeters away from the hilt of his Kodachi, which had been stabbed into the ground not far out in front of him. Meanwhile, his right arm was extended back and pointed at the Chimera's head over 30 meters away.
"Cyn is up to something that he doesn't want anyone to know about," Cinyah stated in a confident tone. She knew her son well enough to recognize he was up to something, but the fact that he was being overly flashy gave her an ominous feeling. One that was almost always followed by something filled with mischief.
She had seen him act like this numerous times throughout his childhood, and her son had even named it doing, "The Art of Deception" since that was the phrase he would say before doing something hidden from her sight, such as swiping cookies from the jar while putting away dishes.
Something flashy always proceeded the underlying objective. Seeing Cynrik taking a stance and putting on a show was an indicator to her, even Rikard, that the young man was about to do something he didn't want anyone else to notice.
"Ah, so he plans on revealing that to everyone…." Placing his empty beer mug on the table beside his recliner, Jessup sat forward with a twinkle in his eyes as he was the only one in the know.
"Huh? Spit it out, Dad; what is that knucklehead doing?" Tossing another handful of popcorn across the room at her father, Maeve cried as she was too impatient to wait.
---
Meanwhile, Roni and Cesar were just as confused as everyone else around the continent. One minute the brothers were recovering their Resource Stats, and the next, they made a break for the Egress Gate, something no sane competitor would do.
The reason being how strong the creatures would be upon stepping out. Very few competitors would try and catch the Swarm Event Creatures as they left the Egress because they were way too strong to contend with until Vinestra's Will established its suppression.
Yet here were two Initial Tier-3 Competitors, standing less than 10 meters from the gate and apparently setting up an ambush of some type.
Cesar: "I…I don't know what to say, folks. From what I gather, the Jetlensr Brothers have thrown caution to the wayside, this very likely will spell disaster for them, and we may see the end of an Impressive Event run."
Heaving a sigh, Cesar seemed downcast by what he was seeing. There had been no shortage of teams to fall by getting too close to the spawning creatures, and now, although he wanted to see how far the VSFA Team would make it, he concluded it was over.
Roni: "It just doesn't make sense to me. Why throw away such a noteworthy and remarkable run? Are they getting impatient, or have the nerves gotten to them?"
Even Roni had counted the brothers out; however, she never looked away from the monitor, especially when Cynrik dropped into the strange stance. As much as she wanted to believe there was some higher meaning to his actions, she couldn't for the life of her figure them out.
---
[Alright, Tobs, I want you to play the best Metal cover for the song in my head you can find…if you need to use my Skill points to do so, then you have my permission.]
Taking a deep breath in through his nose and exhaling loudly out his mouth, Cynrik channeled a few thousand MP into his right shoulder.
-Sigh, if that's what you want, so be it.-
-Now playing "One-Winged Angel (Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children) - METAL COVER" By RichaadEB.-
As the words entered the mind link, a burst of pure Mana erupted from Cynrik's shoulder without taking any form, the force of which caused every blade of grass around his body to flatten as a gust of wind shot out in every direction. The force ended up severing the hair tie holding his hair, and freeing his ponytail, which rose, floating with the blast of wind.
[Oh…my…fucking…god.] Brance muttered in both annoyance and shock as the muscles on Cynrik's right shoulder bulged slightly. If it wasn't enough that his older brother was basically showing off at this point, he now knew that Cynrik was about to go full-blown Weeb.
Brance's annoyance soon faded as he focused on the Egress, remembering the stakes and that he had been warned about his brother's behavior.
Fighting the urge to sigh and taking yet another slow breath, he sunk into a combat stance of his own. He had already put together what was about to happen, and although he wasn't pleased, he understood its meaning.
While Brance got prepared, the Invisible Mana Particles being expelled from Cynrik's right shoulder began condensing; at first, a skeletal limb, three meters long, took form made out of pure Dark Red Fire Mana. Next, layers upon layers of inky, pitch-black feathers condensed and took shape. Soon enough, Cynrik had a complete Wing extending out of his right shoulder.
With the single Wing formed, Cynrik rolled up his lip in a snarl, clutched at the air with his right hand, and pulled; his actions caused the shorter Kodachi to rip from the ground, spin its point toward the Chimera's eye, and rocket forward, piercing its skull and killing it instantly.
[BRANCE, HEAD OFF THE FIRST TWO! I NEED THIRTY SECONDS TO BUILD, BABY!] Cynrik roared, moving his brother into action right as the notifications came through from his kill.
However, Cynrik didn't have time to care, as the short Kodachi flew toward him and stopped right before stabbing him, swung around, and landed hilt first in his outstretched palm before he leaned forward and extracted the longer Kodachi from the ground.
With both swords in hand, Cynrik unlatched two clasps on both hilts, twisted them counterclockwise, and threw them a few meters above his head. The moment both hilts left his grasp, he slammed down both arms, twisted his wrists in a special pattern, held both arms up, and ejected all 14 of his hidden blades, which halted mid-air, as they were caught by his [Dance of Blades] skill.
By the time he took control of the hidden blades, the two Kodachi had landed back in his hands, and Cynrik followed up by flourishing them and striking the hidden blades out of the sky in a predetermined order.
However, unlike what you'd expect, instead of sending the blades flying, they would connect and fuse with whichever Kodachi they crashed into, transforming and making minor adjustments while extending the initially short kodachis into a longer form.
Cynrik spun the now significantly longer kodachis, reclasped what he had undone earlier, smiled sinisterly, and slammed the two extended kodachis together, creating a blast of Fire and Umbra Mana.
Under cover of the blast, the two kodachis merged, combining their newly acquired mass, and extended out longer than any Greatsword, changing from two Kodachi into one extremely long and thin sword, similar to what was known as an Odachi.
"Welcome to the battle, my Masamune!"
Chapter 0495: Rebirth of the One-Winged Angel's Masamune (1)
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